Earl Campbell, left, and Bum Phillips will be featured on NBC's Football Night in America on Sunday. (Karen Warren/Chronicle)

NBC’s “Football Night in America” on Sunday will include a retrospective on Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips to remind viewers of Houston’s football heritage and to promote the Ross Greenburg/NFL Films documentary ” Earl Campbell” Still Standing,” which will air in December on NBC Sports Network. …

Even with relatively limited distribution, Comcast SportsNet Houston still managed a 0.8 rating for its inaugural Rockets game Wednesday night against the Thunder. That’s better than most Astros games during the second half of the season, and it came without carriage on DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse and Suddenlink cable, among others.

As might be imagined, the opener had something of an infomercial feel to it, with plugs for the team and the network from Rockets CEO Tad Brown and CSN Houston GM Matt Hutchings. And, yes, Calvin Murphy, back in the studio, dressed up for the occasion and kept the bombast relatively under control and stuck to the basics about the youthful Rockets’ efforts to adjust to the team’s reshuffled roster.

CSN also is doing postgame shows for Texans games, beginning with a late-night edition after the Houston-Jets game Monday night. Kelli Johnson hosted with former players Keenan McCardell, Derrick Ward and Danny Clark, who are, to be kind, a work in progress. There were way too many instances in which the final phrase of Johnson’s question ended up being the first phrase of the former players’ answers, which is a sure sign of inexperience. Granted, talking into a live microphone while keeping track of the director’s voice in your ear is a learned skill, but these gentlemen have some work to do.

It was a good stroke, though, to have a camera outside the locker room to catch players hugging injured linebacker Brian Cushing. Unfortunately for CSN, it has to do its interviews outside the locker room, since Channel 13 and Fox Sports Southwest are the official team partners with locker room access, so there was a lot of video clutter as reporter Marius Payton talked to players as they left the locker room for the team bus.

Still, CSN is throwing resources at the Texans and Rockets for postgame coverage, so it gets a pass for growing pains. …

Another new face on CSN Houston is Cory Hepola, formerly of KVUE in Austin and WROC in Rochester, N.Y. , where he covered the Bills. He is married to Austin TV reporter Camille Williams. … Former Chronicle columnist John Lopez and Brooke Bentley have joined KUBE’s (Channel 57) “SportsZone” for a weekly segment called “He Said, She Said.” The show airs at 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays on Channel 57, which is airing the ESPN Southeastern Conference package and Southland Conference games. … In addition to its UH, Rice and Shell Houston Open programming ties, CSN Houston also will televise the annual Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year awards banquet this winter. …

It’s a Fox doubleheader weekend in the NFL, so Channel 26 will get Cowboys-Ravens (Sam Rosen and Brian Billick) and Giants-49ers (Thom Brennaman and Troy Aikman). Channel 11 has Colts-Jets at noon (Jim Nantz and Phil Simms), even though it would seem that Patriots-Seahawks would be a better choice at 3:15 p.m. because the Cowboys game likely will get the larger noon audience locally. … Looking ahead, Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf will call Ravens-Texans on Oct. 21. …

Selected college football announcer pairings Saturday: Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge on Texas-Oklahoma from the State Fair of Texas at 11 a.m. on ABC affiliates, including KTRK (Channel 13), Ron Thulin and Shaun King on UAB-Houston at 11 a.m. Saturday on FS Southwest, Sean McDonough and Chris Spielman on West Virginia-Texas Tech at 2:30 p.m. on ABC affiliates, Adam Alexander and Dave Lapham on UTSA-Rice at 2:30 p.m. on Fox Sports Pacific, Joel Meyers and Brian Baldinger on Oklahoma State-Kansas at 2:30 p.m. on FS Southwest, Mike Morgan and JC Pearson on TCU-Baylor at 6 p.m. on FS Southwest, Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit on South Carolina-LSU at 7 p.m. on ESPN, Joe Davis and Kelly Stouffer on Texas A&M-Louisiana Tech at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

A moment of silence, please, for the passing of Beano Cook, the noted ESPN contributor who also worked for CBS Sports and, from 1966 through 1974, for ABC Sports, where his accomplishments included helping set up the legendary Big Shootout between Texas and Arkansas to wrap up college football’s centennial season in 1969. …

Remember the recent note about Cablevision picking up Longhorn Network as part of a master agreement with Disney? Turns out LHN will air only on a sports tier in Cablevision’s western outposts in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, not in Cablevision’s Manhattan stronghold, where it has three million subscribers. LHN, by the way, has added the Iowa State-Texas game on Nov. 10. … With the NHL sidelined, NBC Sports Network will air more of its “Return to London” series from the 2012 London Olympics next week and for as long as the hockey labor impasse continues. …

As the Astros ended their affiliation with Fox Sports Houston with a record low 1.0 Nielsen rating for the season, the Rangers enjoyed record high ratings on Fox Sports Southwest with a 5.9 average, more than 50 percent higher than the previous record of 3.9 a year ago. That average included a FS Southwest record of 10.9 for Yu Darvish’s April 9 debut. The Rangers averaged 151,200 households; the Astros’ average was about 22,000.

The Aeros will continue on KNTH (1070 AM) with Joe O’Donnell calling games for a fifth season. . … With KFNC’s acquisition by Gow Media, KFNC host and former Chronicle sports editor Fred Faour has added a show on Gow’s Yahoo! Sports Radio network. Faour’s show airs from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturdays on Sirius 94 and XM 208 and will air on KGOW (1560 AM) unless preempted by college football. … Dan Patrick this month celebrates his fifth anniversary on Fox Sports Radio. The show is heard on 250 affiliates with a weekly average audience of 1.2 million. …

CBS continues to invest in radio, acquiring WRXP-FM for $75 million as a simulcast partner for sports talk powerhouse WFAN. I wonder if it will ever shell out for an FM counterpart in Houston for KILT-AM? Then again, KILT leads the four-station sports race with an AM signal only, so it may be a moot point for the moment. … Left Coast talker Scott Ferrall will be the late night host on the new CBS Sports Radio network. Oh, darn. I just remembered that KIKK (650 AM) is a daytime-only station, so I’m thinking that the show may not air in Houston. Just as well. …

Finalists for the Ford Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame are Tom Cheek (Expos, Blue Jays), Ken Coleman (Indians, Reds, Red Sox), Jacques Doucet (Expos), John Gordon (Twins and other teams), Bill King (A’s), Graham McNamee (Westinghouse, NBC), Eric Nadel (Rangers), Eduardo Ortega (Padres). Mike Shannon (Cardinals) and former Astros announcer Dewayne Staats (Rays, Cubs). Former Colt .45/Astros announcer Rene Cardenas did not make the finals this year. Nadel, the longtime Rangers announcer, likely can count on at least one vote from the selection committee, which includes former winners, historians and media members, including Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News. …

Former NFL Films producer and ESPN and NBC reporter Andrea Kremer is joining NFL Network to work with a newly formed news unit that will report on NFL players’ health and safety issues. She also will continue with HBO Sports’ “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” … Media soothsayers surveyed by John Ourand of Sports Business Journal predict that ESPN and Fox will win the upcoming bidding for Big East rights, that Fox will get the English Premier League, ESPN will keep the Bowl Championship Series and that Fox will stay in NASCAR, either with ESPN, Turner or NBC. … Dial Global has reupped with the NFL for its NFL radio package, which includes 63 national games, including the Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games and 12 postseason games, including both league title games and the Super Bowl. …

Finally, a non-sports note: Houston native and Baylor University graduate Caitilin Espinosa has joined KRIV (Channel 26) as its morning news meteorologist. She previously worked for KIII-TV in Corpus Christi, KVEO-TV in Brownsville and KXXV-TV in Waco.